I would like to thank everyone for the positive reviews, and the constructive ones, as well as the favourites and alerts. It is truly appreciated.

This Chapter didn't go quite as smoothly as I would have liked, but it was information which needed to get out for the story to continue, so I thank you for baring with me.

Once again, copyright belongs to the wonderful Stephanie Meyer, and I thank her for creating such fantastic characters.

Chapter Seven

Edward POV

We first noticed Bella's gift a few weeks prior to her third birthday. Emmett and Rose had taken off for a week to have some 'couple time', something they hadn't done since Bella had officially become their daughter. Rose had refused to leave her without at least one of her parents, so she and Emmett would hunt separately, or go late at night to ensure one of them was home to tuck their daughter in a night.

With her parents gone, Bella was staying the week at the 'big house', as she called it. Once Bella had joined us, Rose had wanted the three of them to live like a normal family in their own house. Carlisle hadn't been too keen on the idea of them being far away, partly due to the crushed look on Esme's face when Rose has announced her plans, and so they had settled on a compromise. A cottage was built in the woods that surrounded our property. Technically, the land still belonged to our family, and the cottage was far enough away that they had their privacy, but could still run from their house to ours in about thirty seconds at vampire speed and vice versa. Not that that stopped Rose and Emmett keeping a bedroom and walk in closet in our house. Deep down, Rose wasn't really a cottage kind of girl, and there certainly wasn't enough room for her designer junk in the humble cottage. Bella of course, also had her own bedroom in the big house where she was supposed to sleep every Saturday night. On Saturday nights Rose and Emmett had what they referred to as 'special time'. They would tuck Bella into bed at ours, then go back to theirs. Emmett claimed that having a kid was not conducive to an active sex life as she freaked out and started screaming when the foundations moved. Despite having her own room, every Saturday night from the time she could walk, Bella would get out of bed once they left and make her way through to my room with her blanky, which she took everywhere, and fall asleep on the floor. We assume she chose the floor because she couldn't climb onto the couch herself. I took to leaving a stool next to it so she could get up. Eventually Rose and Esme gave up, and a bed was ordered for my room.

Rose and Emmett had taken off after they had tucked her in. She slept through the night, and was treated to pancakes for breakfast by Esme. The rest of the day passed as most days did with Bella. She was dressed and styled by Alice, played with Jasper and I, was fed by Esme, read stories by Carlisle and had her afternoon nap and been cajoled into eating all of her vegetables for dinner. Alice had seen that the evening wouldn't go perfectly. It was, after all, the first time in almost three years that one of her parents wouldn't be tucking her in at night. The trouble began as Jasper began to read her "One Fish Two Fish", the book Emmett had read to her almost every night for the past year without fail.

"No Jazz, Daddy read to me!" Bella stated petulantly sticking out her bottom lip, a trick generally guaranteed to get her what she wanted.

"Daddy's not here munchkin, Mommy and Daddy are on holiday!" Jazz attempted to cajole her. "Uncle Jasper will read you a story, and Edward will tuck you in and stay with you until you go to sleep."

"Bella Boo wants Daddy!" she repeated, using the nickname Emmett had bestowed upon her about a week after we found her on the doorstep. She had been referring to herself in the first person for about a month, an endearing trait, but one Carlisle was keen for us to break.

"Daddy will be back in a few nights to read you a story baby" soothed Esme, pushing the hair back off her forehead.

"No, Bella Boo wants Daddy now! Bella Boo wants Daddy to read her story, not Uncle Jazz!" She was beginning to get more worked up. So I shot a look at Jazz to get him to calm her.

We were all used to the fact that my mind reading ability was wasted on her. I had been near other small children while with her at the park and play centre, and their minds had been open to me. It wasn't the same as reading an adult, but there were images and depending on the age of the child, coherent sentences. We thought it was just an anomaly, Carlisle had his theories, but we just accepted it. But Alice had been able to see her future as well as she could for any of the rest of our family, and Jasper had been able to calm her out of many a temper tantrum. Not this time.

The rest of the room fell into a state of calm, but Bella raised one petulant eyebrow at Jazz and quite clearly stated, "Bella Boo doesn't want to calm down Uncle Jazz, Bella Boo wants Daddy!"

I think Jasper's floor hit the ground as he gaped at the toddler staring up at him. He was yet to encounter a vampire who could shrug of his ability, let alone his almost three year old very human niece.

Another surge of calm wafted through the room, sending the four vampires who were most definitely not immune to Jasper's talent into a near catatonic state. We could see what was happening, but I'm sure that we were as close to sleeping as a vampire could get. But Bella simply glared at him.

"Daaaaddddyyyy!" she screamed. "Bella wants Daddy now! Daddy tuck me!"

Jasper released the rest of the room from their calm states and we all turned to Carlisle, the only one in the room likely to have any idea what was happening, thanks to his constant theorizing. Well, that and the fact that he had been alive a few centuries longer than the rest of us and had seen almost everything there was to see.

Jasper POV

I was completely stumped. I had been able to calm an army of crazed newborns with my talent, and I couldn't settle my three year old niece. I had influenced her moods before, whether it was to get her off to sleep as I was attempting now, or to get her hyper because Rose had pissed me off and was trying to get her to sleep. But this time, it literally felt like I had hit a wall. Confused, I turned to Carlisle.

"Let's get Bella to sleep in the traditional way, and then we will have a chat in the living room" Carlisle stated.

Everyone bar me and Edward was ushered out of the room by my wife, who winked at me.

"I see that you two will get her off to sleep, I'm going to leave you to figure out how though!" she laughed as she followed the others out the room.

Bella, appearing calmer than she had previously (no thanks to me or my talent), raised an eyebrow at us in challenge. I was so not letting a three year old get the better of me.

We tried everything, I read to her from Moby Dick which she usually loved, Edward rocked her like Rose had when she was a baby, Edward sang to her, we turned out the lights and sat with her in the dark. It had been over an hour since everyone left the room, and Bella was still not sleeping. I decided to give calming her another shot.

"Grandpa said the traditional way Jasper" Bella mimicked Carlisle to a tee. I heard a series of giggles from the living room.

The kid was far too intelligent for her own good. I looked at Edward.

"Bring her down to the music room" he sighed. "Make sure she's wrapped up warm and has blanky, we'll try the piano."

Thirty seconds into Clair de Lune and she was gone. We tucked her in and went down to the living room.

"You couldn't have just told us it would be that easy?" I asked my wife.

"I'm sorry" she giggled. "I couldn't resist seeing two grown ass vampires being owned by a three year old. But you should take some responsibility for that intelligence of hers Jazzy, who the hell starts reading Moby Dick to a two year old?"

It was true that whilst Emmet read her Dr Suess every night, she was more than capable of reading that herself. I think it was more that is was something she did with her Dad pretty much every night. I had started reading her advanced material from a young age, and while she didn't always understand it all, she was definitely taken with it. And as a consequence, she was far ahead of her age group when it came to reading and speaking.

Carlisle cleared his throat to get our attention and once again all eyes went to the family patriarch.

Carlisle POV

"I don't really feel comfortable discussing this without Rosalie and Emmett present" I began. "However I can tell you are all curious about Bella." In truth, I was worried about Bella. If my hypothesis were true, then she was going to be very powerful indeed, and I knew of one set of Vampires in particular who loved to collect powerful individuals. We were going to have to keep her talents very carefully hidden.

"I believe Bella is a shield" I stated. "And quite a powerful one at that. As you are all aware, it is quite unusual for humans to display any kind of ability until after they are turned, to be blocking vampires at three years old is quite a feat. I think that Bella was able to block Jasper tonight because she is coming into her own mind as she gets older. She now knows the emotion that she is feeling, and is thus able to tell when Jasper tries to influence her. She knew she was upset, so when Jasper tried to push calm at her, she threw up her shield, knowing that it wasn't her emotion coming through. I believe that as she gets older, this will get stronger. At this stage it appears to be a mental shield, but it may develop further as she learns to control it."

"Why didn't I see this coming though?" asked Alice.

"I assume because it just happened" I responded. "She didn't know that she could do it until she decided that she didn't want to feel calm, so you were never able to see the fact that Jasper wouldn't be able to influence her until she came to that realization herself. You probably won't be able to see how it develops until she gets older and realizes what it is she is doing and learns how to control and develop it."

"But I have never been able to hear her thoughts Carlisle" said Edward.

"I have reason to believe there are two shields in operation. One which wraps itself around her, protecting her, and one which she can throw up at will. I think that eventually, with training, she should be able to lift the one which surrounds her to let you in, and to throw the other so that it protects others. This is a very powerful gift she possesses. If she is turned, no doubt Bella will become one of the most powerful vampires alive. We must be very careful who knows about it. If the Volturi ever got wind of something like this, they would no doubt attempt to take her from us and turn her themselves when she was of age. Not that it would be good for us if they found out about Bella at all."

I watched as my family processed the information, silently dreading having to tell her parents that their baby girl is simultaneously one of the most powerful, yet one of the most vulnerable humans on the planet. Until she could learn to control her gifts, she would be in danger. This was far from the relatively normal life Rosalie wanted to provide for her daughter. But I once again thanked my lucky stars that this precious, precocious, special little girl had been left on our doorstep. Fate indeed.